The Psychological Trick Restaurants Use To Make You Spend More



From the moment we walk through the doors of a restaurant, our attention is divided. Greeted by the staff, we're led to a table where, menu in hand, we peruse the selections while being somewhat distracted, busy taking in the restaurant's atmosphere while engaging in conversation with our dining companions. If we think about the menu at all beyond what it offers, it's probably just to notice its visual appeal. However, from the restaurant’s point of view, the menu is a marketing tool. One of the psychological strategies that restaurants employ to direct our spending is to drop the dollar sign from the pages of the menu. We all know that dollar signs represent money, and if we see that dollar sign over and over again next to every item on the menu as we're scanning the choices and deciding what to order, it reminds us that we're about to spend money.......maybe a lot of money. Without dollar signs, we still understand that those numbers next to a menu item are what it costs, but the communication of the price is more subtle and keeps us focused on the experience rather than the cost of the experience. The bottom line: the currency sign symbolizes money and therefore communicates to the diner that the restaurant is just a business out to make a profit.